The Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) is an attempt in the
House of Representatives by a number of US politicians to expand
the ability for copyright holders to fight the sharing of
copyrighted material online. However, it has proved massively
controversial, and its critics say that it will threaten free
speech, as well as putting many popular sites at risk of being shut
down. The Protect IP Act (Pipa) is a similar bill in the
Senate.

As a result, a number of prominent websites have promised
to stage a temporary shutdown on 18 January to simulate what a
future with Sopa might look like. One of the first was link-sharing
site Reddit (owned by Conde Nast Digital, as is Wired.co.uk), which
announced recently that it would be shutting down for 12 hours
and displaying a message about the legislation instead. Since then,
many others have joined the blackout.

Sopa has temporarily been put on hold following rumours
that the White House might be prepared to use its veto, and the
leaders of the House have said that they will "work to build
consensus" before bringing the legislation to a vote. Wales said, however, that the blackout will continue as planned as
fighting Pipa is just as crucial, and Sopa could be resurrected if
the fuss dies down.

Roger Bamkin, the chair of the UK chapter of Wikimedia,
told Wired.co.uk in an email: "We regard the Sopa and Pipa
legislation in the United States as a threat to the current
operation of Wikipedia. This could also affect Wikimedia's other
projects operated under US law. The members of the Wikipedia
community have been balloted to determine whether they wish to
blackout Wikipedia on Wednesday and agreed that this should
happen."

Edited by Olivia Solon

Comments

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DV-AT1212A-D18

Jan 18th 2012

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